How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[ReliaWylder]

Sure, I can explain.

1. That set was discarded in one of the heuristics used to determine whether it's worth calculating a set or not. If we didn't discard any sets, there would be about 25 million sets to calculate, which is too many. Even at 1000 sets/sec, you're still looking at 7 hours of calculations.

The exact heuristic used for this particular set is the following:

A previously calculated set had these stats.

--Number 7
DPS: 1543.25874803661
Player Equipment:
Gordian Trident
Gordian Sallet of Maiming
Dragonlancer's Plackart
Gordian Gauntlets of Maiming
Fabled Belt of Maiming
Dragonlancer's Cuissots
Gordian Sabatons of Maiming
Fabled Necklace of Slaying
Gordian Earrings of Slaying
Gordian Wristband of Slaying
Fabled Ring of Slaying
Gordian Ring of Slaying
Baked Pipira Pira
Player stats:
Str: 1111
Acc: 639
Crt: 869
Det: 415
Sks: 637

If we compare the proposed set, we see that it has strictly less than or equal STR and WD and falls into a worse SKS category (650 skill speed is less dps than 637 skill speed due to DoT clipping, all else equal.)

That means the only reason to consider the proposed set instead of this already calculated set is the CRT and DET, since all other stats are equal or worse. We see that we gain 31 CRT, at the cost of 58 DET. DET's weight is approximately 0.14. In order for 31 CRT to be better than 58 DET, CRT would have to be weighed around 0.24. Unfortunately, the actual weight of CRT is around 0.12-0.17 with the range of ~300 to ~900 CRT. In order for CRT to weigh 0.24, you would probably have to have around 1500 CRT already. Anyway, the actual weight doesn't even come close to the weight it would need to be better for any practical purpose so we can immediately tell it's a worse set and not calculate it.

Actually calculating it proves this result: 1538.313 dps, which is 5 dps lower than the previously calculated set, so the heuristic was correct.

2. While weights are considered in the heuristics to filter out sets that will never come close to competing, the actual calculation of DPS does not use weights and derives directly from the formulas. So the fact that it matches up with the weights is a happy coincidence.

3. Yes. The lower limit of skill speed is 463 in the simulation to ensure the broadest possible range of sets are calculated. However, you have to be a machine to do that. But it is certainly possible. To prove this, equip a 490 skill speed set and try it. I just did; you can get 3 gsk/min every time. 579 skill speed would be very comfortable.

4. #2 is in contention because the simulation doesn't use weights to calculate DPS. It calculates actual DPS, whereas weights are only an approximation (especially when talking about CRT and SKS).

5.
--OPENER
HT
BL
B4B
ID
BOTD
IR (this is flipped for the opener only - in the rotation, always use IR before BOTD. This flip is in order to get IR to apply to the second CT.)
DIS
STRPOT
CT
LS
PS
4TH
JMP
PH
SSD
ID
DFD
DIS
LEG
GK
CT
4TH

Follow the opener with HT-TTT4, etc. This opener does about 700 more damage than the standard opener with A4S stats. I found it because I originally developed a rotation simulator.

Hope that's helpful!

[JackFross]

--OPENER
http://ffxivrotations.com/2q4
Follow the opener with HT-TTT4, etc. This opener does about 700 more damage than the standard opener with A4S stats. I found it because I originally developed a rotation simulator.

Hope that's helpful!

I've been considering using this opener in A4S. As it stands normally, my last combo before Quarantine is a Full Thrust combo, which leaves the Bard with a pretty substantial dead time (approximately 16-17 seconds) of Disembowel if I get sucked up. I'm hoping Relia still stalks this thread to reply to this question, but anyone with knowledge of it would be helpful - would it be worth it? For context, this opener is technically better than the standard potion opener. I'd be trying to theorycraft a no-potion opener myself, since I like using my potion on leg 3 due to being a scrub, but yeah. An extra 5 gcds before that last Disembowel application would cut the time from 16-17 down to 3-4.

Would it be worthwhile to make a change like this?


//EDIT: After fiddling a bit in excel, I came up with this:
http://ffxivrotations.com/2q9 - optimal H-IDC4-P-IDC4 with no Potion
http://ffxivrotations.com/2qa - optimal H-IDC4-P-TTT4 with no Potion

numbers say the former would be +4-ish pps over the latter, but I dunno if I totally trust the numbers.